DIY: Let's Get Nekkid!!!

[NevadaWolf]

Ok, my phone is charged enough for pix. I'll upload the pics here so they never vanish.

And just for the record, about 15-20 minutes with me fussing with the camera.

[NevadaWolf]

Okay, repair of the upper cowling pictures....

Don't mind my dirty bike. She's had a rough life since the pictures from Dec 2012.

First remove the side cover and lower cowling as detailed above:





Undo the two lower bolts uncovered



Undo the two upper bolts



Undo the two lower windshield bolts



Remove the two lower rivets



Be aware of the lip on the front edge of the radiator cover



Lift and pull the front cowling off



Balance the cowling with one hand and reach behind it to unplug the headlights

[Alex]

Thanks, Wolf!

[corksil]

Thanks for doing the community a service. It truly is people like you who make this a better place for all of us.

You've inspired me to do a proper DIY for my upcoming valve lash adjustment.

[cadd]

We need a thread like this for the 300! Great pics on this DIY thread everyone!

[petersophy]

Loving this thread, never liked the look of the 4th gen fully faired. Can't wait till it's done. Good luck!

[SuperG$]

Great write up! I just removed my front fairings with this

[rreneav1987]

Hey Guys,

I am new around here and I would like help and suggestion from all of you. I own a 2010 Ninja 250R in India. Recently, the speedo console (Dashboard) lights have gone dim and I feel they need to be replaced. I was thinking of going the LED way. Can you fellas guide/help me out?

will these bulbs do good? will you guys suggest White LED or Blue LED?

[DannoXYZ]

Personally I like a dull-red display. Just enough to see at night, but doesn't destroy night-vision.

Once upon a time back in my younger years, I was into bright white gauge-faces and bright LED bulbs that was fashionable. I think I had more lumens from my dash lighting up sky than my headlight was putting on ground. But I found whenever I looked at my gauges and back up at road, it was black! I had to wait 3-5 seconds as my pupils dilated back up to see road.

[rreneav1987]

Originally Posted by DannoXYZ

Personally I like a dull-red display. Just enough to see at night, but doesn't destroy night-vision.

blue dash isn't pleasing to the eyes, hence I am trying to change the color (not sure how effective it would be by changing the color of the bulb) I drive a car with white dash and I am comfortable with it. However, the difference would be. I can adjust the brightness in my car which I won't be able to do with on my Ninja

Once upon a time back in my younger years, I was into bright white gauge-faces and bright LED bulbs that was fashionable. I think I had more lumens from my dash lighting up sky than my headlight was putting on ground. But I found whenever I looked at my gauges and back up at road, it was black! I had to wait 3-5 seconds as my pupils dilated back up to see road.

Sounds like you are suggesting me not to go for the LED white bulbs! With a very good intention and I will take it.

Thanks for the suggestion! I will probably pull of the fairing and get the things done over the coming weekend unless my wife has other plans.

Anyone else with other inputs? I am open to any suggestion and cautions

[Bob KellyIII]

LED white would be good but not the super bright ones.... unlike regular incandescent bulbs LED lights can get really bright and fit in small places...
so it's not so much stay away from white it is stay away from super bright LED's in the dash..... !!!!!
.....
Hay Danno, can't you just add a Potentiometer(resistance Pot) to the V+ wire and then to the LED to make a dimmer for the LED's ? that way you could have a dimmer switch for your dash on the Ninja ....
it's a thought ......
Bob........

[DannoXYZ]

No, LEDs don't have linear response like incandescent bulbs. They're mostly on or off. To dim LED, you can't vary voltage, need to use PWM similar to fuel-injectors.

https://www.amazon.com/pwm-led-dimme...pwm+led+dimmer

[Triple Jim]

Originally Posted by DannoXYZ

No, LEDs don't have linear response like incandescent bulbs. They're mostly on or off. To dim LED, you can't vary voltage, need to use PWM similar to fuel-injectors.

Danno, you can definitely vary LED current to vary brightness, so using a series resistance to limit current works fine. PWM is often used because it's more efficient and easier to do with a microcontroller.

[DannoXYZ]

Originally Posted by Triple Jim

Danno, you can definitely vary LED current to vary brightness, so using a series resistance to limit current works fine. PWM is often used because it's more efficient and easier to do with a microcontroller.

Sure, with incandescent, you can vary 1-12v to change brightness, LEDs are squeezed into narrow 3.0-3.5v range. If using any kind of pot, you're looking at 1/16-turn between full-brightness and complete darkness. And if you've got it balanced at that point, variable-voltage from alternator will cause it to flicker up & down. Just try it.

PWM is also much more precise due to them being current-regulators as well. So you set an output and it stays there regardless of variable input-voltage.



https://www.circuitbread.com/tutoria...-to-dim-an-led

[Triple Jim]

Originally Posted by DannoXYZ

Sure, with incandescent, you can vary 1-12v to change brightness, LEDs are squeezed into narrow 3.0-3.5v range. If using any kind of pot, you're looking at 1/16-turn between full-brightness and complete darkness. And if you've got it balanced at that point, variable-voltage from alternator will cause it to flicker up & down. Just try it.

I've worked with LEDs for many years. It's not the junction voltage you vary with a series resistance, it's the current. With a 12v supply, an LED with a 3v junction drop can have its current controlled with a potentiometer and it will work quite well. As you change the resistance, the forward voltage of the LED will stay near 3v, but the current, and consequently the brightness, will vary much more linearly. Just try it.

[Bob KellyIII]

seems to me I've done it with a pot before too... but it's been decades ago in my Ham radio days... haven't played with electronics much sense !
yes a pulse width Modulator is the Preferred way to do it, but not the only way !
they use much less power with a PWM .... but we're hooked to a big bike battery and don't care about power right ? ( we're not running it on 3 AAA batteries)
I suppose the value of the pot used would make or brake the idea, if you used a 3 meg ohm pot it probably would have such a narrow range you'd just see the LED flash as you went by the sweet spot... and if you use a 5K Ohm resister
Pot... it might not be enough I don't know.... not my day to figure it out ! LOL
might be fun to experiment with though !
.... it was just a thought !
Bob........

[Triple Jim]

For an LED that's rated at 20 milliamps, a starting point might be a 10k pot. If it won't go dim enough, try higher resistance values.

Of course you need to either use an LED that is an assembly with an internal resistor like the incandescent replacement LEDs or if it's just a bare LED you need to have a fixed resistor in series with the pot so when it's up all the way current is still limited to no more than the LED's rating.

Efficiency is not a concern in this application because the highest power requirement will be when the pot is set to full brightness and the LED is run at its maximum current rating, and that power is 0.020 amps x 14 volts = 0.28 watts (about 1/4 of a watt) By comparison, the brake light draws about 2 amps and its power requirement is about 25 watts.

[DannoXYZ]

if using pot, make sure you get linear and not audio pot.

[Bob KellyIII]

aren't all Pot's (potentiometers) variable resistors ? or did something change while I was away ? ...what's the difference between a regular pot and a audio-pot ?
Bob....

[Triple Jim]

Originally Posted by Bob KellyIII

aren't all Pot's (potentiometers) variable resistors ? or did something change while I was away ? ...what's the difference between a regular pot and a audio-pot ?
Bob....

There are different type of potentiometers for different applications. Their resistance values change at different rates as you turn them. https://eepower.com/resistor-guide/r...ometer-taper/#

If you use a pot to vary the brightness of an LED, a linear type pot is probably the type you would use, but if you find that as you turn the brightness up from minimum that you use too much of the pot's range getting to halfway bright, and from there to fully bright is just a small amount of turning, then an inverse log taper might be better. (just an example)

[Bob KellyIII]

wow... how things change over time ! I built the HW-101 Ham radio from heathkit many years ago, a tube and transistor 100 watt transceiver....
now everything is printed circuit boards and little dots on it that I can't tell what they are ! LOL.... if ya snooze ya loose ! HAHAHAHA
Bob......

[Triple Jim]

Originally Posted by Bob KellyIII

wow... how things change over time ! I built the HW-101 Ham radio from heathkit many years ago, a tube and transistor 100 watt transceiver....
now everything is printed circuit boards and little dots on it that I can't tell what they are ! LOL.... if ya snooze ya loose ! HAHAHAHA
Bob......

Log taper pots are as old at pots. I have a box of them from the 1950s and it has linear and log taper pots in it. If you try to use a linear pot for a radio volume control it gets loud at low settings, and the last 1/2 of the pot's rotation does almost nothing more.

The link I posted above explains the codes that tell you which type of pot is without having to use a meter on it to find out.

[Bob KellyIII]

interesting ! in my days that sort of reaction is not getting the right Pot for the job ! LOL....I used linier wound pots mostly as their what was supplied with most of the kits I got. I built a 555ic timer chip into a 757 ic amp chip to make a audio amplifier for CW work with a real tight filter in it... put it in a box and all that good stuff and used it for years on CW.... Morse code was my thing back then. But sense I didn't add any protection circuits to it I found out years later it damaged my hearing.... anything at around 1000hz is way down in hearing for me .... and I told the Doc I know what did that ! but sense I am hard of hearing on every scale now it really doesn't matter that much ! HAHAHAHA
(too many motorcycles with no mufflers ! ) that boom you hear from the exhaust covers a very large spectrum and the talking frequency is in that !
so I say "What?" alot now ! if it wasn't for my Wife I'd have to have hearing aids ! .... she is my interpreter LOL....
Forest M. Mims was the best Author for electronic projects back then....
Radio shack carried his books.... I had dozens !
...then I got into Gyrocopters and never looked back ! only flew mine 1' off the ground once.... but had fun rebuilding the gyro 3 times !
....
later !
Bob....

[Triple Jim]

Originally Posted by Bob KellyIII

Morse code was my thing back then.

Excellent! My father and I talked every morning by Morse Code until he got too old to do it. Wherever I was... working on a job in SC, back in MD where I grew up, or here in NC, we didn't miss more than a handful of days in 10 years. I enjoyed code very much. It got to where I was hearing the other guy talk to me rather than hearing dots and dashes.

[Bob KellyIII]

I got to Advanced in licenses, didn't make Extra because I can't write at 20wpm ! LOL.... my friends Don & Clint and I talked every night on 80m for about 5 years straight... they got me from barely 5 wpm to well over 20 wpm
I could copy 60 wpm in my head of normal conversations but doing DX where they do numbers and symbols all the time threw me for a loop ! HHAHAH
Jone Coffer was my teacher really... she was real sharp on everything !
....
now I would be lucky to copy 5 wpm LOL just because I haven't used it in years !
my favorite morse code was ..--.. LOL
i made an Iambic keyer and had a set of nice paddles and I could send at 60 wpm ... and yes at that speed you learn the sound of the letters not the dits and dahs ! I wonder if all that paddle time is the reason my right hand goes numb so fast when Riding ? LOL
those were the days..... unfortunately I lost 4 ham radios and all the electronic test goodies I had when the Ranch house burned down about 9 years ago... and 12 motorcycles ! ... everything but the gyrocopter !
tools included I now have a bunch of untempered tools ! lol.
( that is why I have been slowly replacing them all)
oh well, that's life... **** happens !
Bob........